Cool article. So basically they drain out as much water as they can from the Danube in the days leading up to the storm, so that when the storm hits the river is already low and can accommodate...
Cool article. So basically they drain out as much water as they can from the Danube in the days leading up to the storm, so that when the storm hits the river is already low and can accommodate the extra water. Then they also pump out as much water as they can during the storm itself. Good job 1970s Austrians! Glad to see they're actively expanding this flood prevention network too. 10k-11k cubic meters of water pumped out per second out of 14k capacity sounds fine for now, but with storms getting stronger and stronger each year, that might not be the case for long.
Also I really wish we stopped calling these abnormal climate events things like '5000-year flood', or one-in-a-lifetime, or anything else like that. These things are becoming more common, stronger, and calling them super rare events that barely ever happen just leads to a false sense of security. The article even touches on this towards the end! Every year there are tons of once-in-a-lifetime weather events all around the globe, so we should probably stop calling them that.
Interesting to see a different approach based on similar principles as used in my country. As the article touches on dams, levees and other barriers can in some situations make things worse and...
So basically they drain out as much water as they can from the Danube in the days leading up to the storm, so that when the storm hits the river is already low and can accommodate the extra water. Then they also pump out as much water as they can during the storm itself.
Interesting to see a different approach based on similar principles as used in my country. As the article touches on dams, levees and other barriers can in some situations make things worse and have a real ceiling in what can be achieved through them.
Yeah as someone who lives in a very wet area, I think flood management and prevention is such an interesting topic. And it's becoming more important each year. One of the trickiest parts, that you...
Yeah as someone who lives in a very wet area, I think flood management and prevention is such an interesting topic. And it's becoming more important each year. One of the trickiest parts, that you and the article both bring up, is that what works in one place may not work in another. So flood prevention has to be almost built bespoke for each city or town or region. Levees might work in one area, but not in others. Draining rivers/lakes might work in another, but not where there aren't any rivers or lakes. Somewhere that gets 30+ inches of rain annually might not balk at a 4-inch rainstorm, whereas some other place usually only gets 3 inches per year and so a 1-inch storm might wreak havok.
It's like a big puzzle but with the added mess of politics and funding and massive consequences for getting things wrong.
slightly off-topic and a bit silly/morbid
Damn I just realized this whole topic would make for a great game. Something akin to mini metro/motorways but with flood prevention and design. Each city is a level that requires some ingenuity to save using limited resources available to you. Or it could be like a tower defense game but instead of waves of enemies coming to destroy you it's storms and floods coming to destroy your town. Hell, make it a roguelike and make each level procedurally generated, somewhat like against the storm (can even keep the same name, lol).
Yeah, my part of California had a 20 year drought and so we just didn't do flood mitigation to any significant degree, and now that things are getting wetter we're remarkably under prepared for...
Yeah, my part of California had a 20 year drought and so we just didn't do flood mitigation to any significant degree, and now that things are getting wetter we're remarkably under prepared for water just running freely along the surface of the earth.
Funny enough I was thinking specifically about California when I wrote that. Have a friend that lives there and was telling me about some major flooding they had a year or two ago, then when I...
Funny enough I was thinking specifically about California when I wrote that. Have a friend that lives there and was telling me about some major flooding they had a year or two ago, then when I went to look it up it was like maybe an inch of rain. We get that much rain once or twice a week all summer long over where I'm from.
Reminds me of those news stories you see of chaos on the streets of like Georgia or Texas when they have the tiniest bit of snow, meanwhile northerners who get 20+ inches of snow a year point and laugh and find it ridiculous. Different places are (usually) prepared for the types of extreme weather they normally get. Why would they spend millions of dollars/euros/whatever preparing for something that's pretty much never happened before? Except the problem is that because of climate change, they ARE happening now, and a ton of places are not prepared. This article made me glad to see that some places, like Austria, are being more proactive with it, since disaster preparedness laws are usually written in blood (and/or property damage).
Not off-topic by that much. It does fit the theme of many other games. I mean you also have games about cleaning up after we already messed up the earth. I had a quick look around and there are...
slightly off-topic and a bit silly/morbid
Not off-topic by that much. It does fit the theme of many other games. I mean you also have games about cleaning up after we already messed up the earth.
I had a quick look around and there are actually a few games around! Most of them are educational and aimed at children, which makes sense. Some examples I found (didn't really play test them):
Cool article. So basically they drain out as much water as they can from the Danube in the days leading up to the storm, so that when the storm hits the river is already low and can accommodate the extra water. Then they also pump out as much water as they can during the storm itself. Good job 1970s Austrians! Glad to see they're actively expanding this flood prevention network too. 10k-11k cubic meters of water pumped out per second out of 14k capacity sounds fine for now, but with storms getting stronger and stronger each year, that might not be the case for long.
Also I really wish we stopped calling these abnormal climate events things like '5000-year flood', or one-in-a-lifetime, or anything else like that. These things are becoming more common, stronger, and calling them super rare events that barely ever happen just leads to a false sense of security. The article even touches on this towards the end! Every year there are tons of once-in-a-lifetime weather events all around the globe, so we should probably stop calling them that.
Interesting to see a different approach based on similar principles as used in my country. As the article touches on dams, levees and other barriers can in some situations make things worse and have a real ceiling in what can be achieved through them.
Yeah as someone who lives in a very wet area, I think flood management and prevention is such an interesting topic. And it's becoming more important each year. One of the trickiest parts, that you and the article both bring up, is that what works in one place may not work in another. So flood prevention has to be almost built bespoke for each city or town or region. Levees might work in one area, but not in others. Draining rivers/lakes might work in another, but not where there aren't any rivers or lakes. Somewhere that gets 30+ inches of rain annually might not balk at a 4-inch rainstorm, whereas some other place usually only gets 3 inches per year and so a 1-inch storm might wreak havok.
It's like a big puzzle but with the added mess of politics and funding and massive consequences for getting things wrong.
slightly off-topic and a bit silly/morbid
Damn I just realized this whole topic would make for a great game. Something akin to mini metro/motorways but with flood prevention and design. Each city is a level that requires some ingenuity to save using limited resources available to you. Or it could be like a tower defense game but instead of waves of enemies coming to destroy you it's storms and floods coming to destroy your town. Hell, make it a roguelike and make each level procedurally generated, somewhat like against the storm (can even keep the same name, lol).Yeah, my part of California had a 20 year drought and so we just didn't do flood mitigation to any significant degree, and now that things are getting wetter we're remarkably under prepared for water just running freely along the surface of the earth.
Funny enough I was thinking specifically about California when I wrote that. Have a friend that lives there and was telling me about some major flooding they had a year or two ago, then when I went to look it up it was like maybe an inch of rain. We get that much rain once or twice a week all summer long over where I'm from.
Reminds me of those news stories you see of chaos on the streets of like Georgia or Texas when they have the tiniest bit of snow, meanwhile northerners who get 20+ inches of snow a year point and laugh and find it ridiculous. Different places are (usually) prepared for the types of extreme weather they normally get. Why would they spend millions of dollars/euros/whatever preparing for something that's pretty much never happened before? Except the problem is that because of climate change, they ARE happening now, and a ton of places are not prepared. This article made me glad to see that some places, like Austria, are being more proactive with it, since disaster preparedness laws are usually written in blood (and/or property damage).
Not off-topic by that much. It does fit the theme of many other games. I mean you also have games about cleaning up after we already messed up the earth.
I had a quick look around and there are actually a few games around! Most of them are educational and aimed at children, which makes sense. Some examples I found (didn't really play test them):